1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flat panel display device, and more particularly, to method for fabricating apparatus of fabricating flat panel display device and method for fabricating flat panel display device, which enables to carry out a patterning process without a photo process.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In a recent information society, there is a great emphasis on display devices as visual information transmission medium. In case of cathode ray tubes CRTs which are used commonly in the recent information society, they have problems of high volume and weight. Examples of flat panel display devices are a liquid crystal display device LCD, a field emission display FED, a plasma display panel PDP, and an electroluminescence device EL, and the most of them have been put to practical use.
The LCD device can satisfy a recent trend in a marketing field of electronic device, that is, thin profile and light weight, and also can realize the mass production. In this respect, the LCD device substitutes for the CRT in wide application fields. Especially, an active-matrix type LCD device, which drives a liquid crystal cell by using a thin film transistor (hereinafter, referred to as “TFT”), has advantages of high picture quality and low power consumption. Owing to results of recently searched mass-production technology, the LCD device has been developed to large-size and high resolution device.
As shown in FIG. 1, the active-matrix type LCD device includes a color filter substrate 22 and a TFT array substrate 23 bonded to each other with a liquid crystal layer 15 formed therebetween. The active-matrix type LCD device shown in FIG. 1 illustrates some of an entire effective screen.
The color filter substrate 22 includes a color filter 13 and a common electrode 14 formed on a rear surface of an upper glass substrate 12. On the entire surface of the upper glass substrate 12, the color filter 13 includes red(R), green(G) and blue(B) color filters which transmit light of corresponding wavelength bands, to thereby enable to display colors. Although not shown, a black matrix is positioned between each of the adjacent color filters 13.
The TFT array substrate 23 includes a plurality of gate lines 18 and data lines 19 formed on an entire surface of a lower glass substrate 16, wherein each gate line 18 is formed in perpendicular to each data line 19. At this time, thin film transistors 20 are formed at every crossing of the gate and data lines 18 and 19. On the entire surface of the lower glass substrate 16, a pixel electrode 21 is formed in each cell region defined by the gate and data lines 18 and 19. The thin film transistor 20 switches a data transmission pass between the data line 19 and the pixel electrode 21 in response to a scanning signal from the gate line 18, to thereby drive the pixel electrode 21. A polarizing plate 17 is attached to the rear surface of the TFT array substrate 23. Also, the liquid crystal layer 15 controls the amount of incident light passing through the TFT array substrate 23 by an electric field applied.
The polarizing plates 11 and 17 attached to the color filter substrate 22 and the TFT array substrate 23 transmit the light polarized toward any one direction. When the liquid crystal layer 15 is in 90° TN mode, the polarizing directions of the polarizing plates 11 and 17 are perpendicular to each other. Although not shown, alignment films are formed on the liquid crystal facing surfaces of the color filter substrate 22 and the TFT array substrate 23.
A process for fabricating the active-matrix type LCD device includes a substrate cleaning step, a substrate patterning step, an alignment film forming and rubbing step, a substrate bonding and liquid crystal injecting step, a mounting step, a test step, and a repair step. At this time, the substrate cleaning step removes foreign matters from the surface of substrate by using a cleaner. The substrate patterning step includes patterning the color filter substrate and patterning the TFT array substrate. The alignment film forming and rubbing step includes coating the alignment film on each of the color filter substrate and the TFT array substrate, and rubbing the coated alignment film by a rubbing cloth. The substrate bonding and liquid crystal injecting step includes bonding the color filter substrate and the TFT array substrate to each other by using a sealant, providing spacers between the two substrates, injecting liquid crystal to a space between the two substrates through an inlet, and sealing the inlet. The mounting step includes connecting a tape carrier package (hereinafter, referred to as “TCP”) on which a gate drive integrated circuit and a data drive integrated circuit are mounted to a pad region of the substrate. The drive integrated circuit may be directly mounted on the substrate by Chip On Glass (hereinafter, referred to as “COG”), instead of Tape Automated Bonding using the aforementioned TCP. The test step includes an electrical test performed after forming the pixel electrodes and signal lines such as the gate and data lines on the TFT array substrate, and an electrical test and macrography performed after the substrate bonding and liquid crystal injecting step. The repair step performs the repair for the substrate which is judged to be reparable by the test step. If it is impossible to repair the substrates, they are discarded.
When fabricating the various flat panel display devices as well as the LCD device, a thin film material deposited on a substrate is patterned by photolithography. The photolithography includes steps of photoresist coating, mask alignment, exposure, development and cleaning. However, the photolithography requires a long period of time, and causes the lost of photo-resist material and stripping liquid. Also, it is necessary for the photolithography to use a high-priced exposure apparatus.